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Jack Thayer
|birth_place = Philadelphia, U.S. |death_date = |death_place = Philadelphia, U.S. |spouse = Lois Cassatt (?-1945) (his death) 6 children }} John Borland "Jack" Thayer III (December 24, 1894 – September 20, 1945) was a first-class passenger on the [[RMS Titanic|RMS Titanic]] who provided several first-hand accounts of the disaster. RMS Titanic Seventeen years old at the time, Jack Thayer boarded the Titanic with his parents, John Borland, Jr. and Marian Thayer, and a maid at Southampton on April 10, 1912. Jack occupied cabin C-70 while his parents occupied C-68.[http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/biography/299/ Mr John Borland Jr. Thayer - Titanic Biography - Encyclopedia Titanica] Shortly after 11:30 p.m. on 14 April 1912, Jack noticed that he could no longer feel a breeze streaming through his half-open porthole. He did not recall feeling the ship's collision with the iceberg. He dressed and went to A deck on the port side to see what had happened. Finding nothing, he walked to the bow, where he could faintly make out ice on the forward well deck. Jack woke his parents, who accompanied him back to the port side of the ship. Noticing that the Titanic was developing a list to port, they returned to their rooms and put on warmer clothes and life vests. They returned to the deck, but Jack lost sight of his parents and after searching for them, assumed they had boarded a lifeboat. Jack soon encountered Milton Long, a fellow passenger he had met hours before over coffee. Both Milton and Jack tried to board a lifeboat but were denied because they were men. Jack then proposed to jump off the ship, as he was a good swimmer. However, Milton was not and advised Jack against it. Eventually, as the ship was sinking quickly, the two men decided to jump and attempt to swim to safety. Milton went first; it was the last time Jack ever saw him. Once in the water, Jack reached an improperly launched and overturned collapsible lifeboat. Too exhausted to save himself, he was pulled from the water. He and a number of other men were able to balance on the boat for some hours. He later recalled that the cries of hundreds of people in the water reminded him of the high-pitched hum of locusts in his native Pennsylvania. After spending the night on the overturned collapsible, Jack was picked up by Lifeboat 12. He was so distraught and freezing that he did not notice his mother in nearby Lifeboat 4, nor did she notice him. Lifeboat 12 finally made its way to the rescue ship [[RMS Carpathia|RMS Carpathia]] at 8:30 am Jack's father did not get to a lifeboat and died. Nearly all those who lived did so by boarding lifeboats. Jack was one of only about 40 survivors of those who jumped or fell into the water. Later life Thayer went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania. He married Lois Cassatt, daughter of Edward B. Cassatt and Emily L. Phillips. Her grandfather was Alexander Cassatt, President of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The couple had two sons, Edward and John IV, and also daughters. In 1940, he described his experiences with the Titanic sinking in vivid detail in a self-published pamphlet; 500 copies were printed for family and friends. Oceanographer Robert Ballard used it to determine the location of the Titanic and proved that the ship had split in half as it sank, contrary to popular belief. Thayer's account is sometimes included jointly with the memoirs of the disaster by fellow survivor Archibald Gracie IV in modern editions of Gracie's book Titanic: A Survivor's Story. Death During World War II, both of Jack's sons enlisted in the armed services. Edward was killed in 1943 in the Pacific theatre. When the news reached Thayer, he became extremely depressed and committed suicide on September 20, 1945. He was found in an automobile at 48th and Parkside Ave., his throat and wrists cut. He is buried at the Church of the Redeemer Cemetery in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Thayer was the financial vice president of the University of Pennsylvania at the time of his death. Further reading * Titanic: A Survivor's Story and the Sinking of the S.S. Titanic by Archibald Gracie IV and Jack Thayer, Academy Chicago Publishers, 1988 ISBN 0-89733-452-3 * Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy, by John P. Eaton and Charles A. Haas, W.W. Newton & Company, 2nd edition 1995 ISBN 0-393-03697-9 * A Night to Remember, by Walter Lord, ed. Nathaniel Hilbreck, Owl Books, rep. 2004, ISBN 0-8050-7764-2 See also *Passengers of the RMS Titanic References External links * Encyclopedia Titanica article on John Borland Thayer III Category:1894 births Category:1945 deaths Category:RMS Titanic's crew and passengers Category:Businesspeople who committed suicide Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni Category:Suicides in Pennsylvania Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:RMS Titanic survivors